The commission did, however, have an influence on legal education for decades and was a factor in the establishment of modern law schools at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.
The Inns of Court were medieval institutions, similar to guilds, which served originally as accommodation and training to apprentices in law.
Law began to be taught in the universities in the 18th-century but the inns retained a key role in assessing candidates for admission to the bar.
[6] In the 17th century the Inns of Chancery changed role and became associated largely with the training of solicitors as the legal profession began to separate into two distinct branches.
[8] The report noted that although "the present system of practical study in a barristers' chambers must be admitted to be very efficient in fitting the student for the active duties of his profession; it affords, however, no facilities for the study of the scientific branches of legal knowledge" and noted that in particular the Inns of Chancery were no longer effective in advancing the education of lawyers.
[7][9] Henry James Sumner Maine lobbied the commission to recommend examinations for barristers and implement measures to provide a broader understanding of the law amongst legal professionals.
[10] The royal commission recommended that the inns be incorporated as a single public body to function as a university of law (though they would be allowed to retain their current individual possessions).
The only recent transactions recorded were the collection of rents from its chambers, the rental of its hall to a debating society and the payment of a fee to the Inner Temple to provide a reader.
[7] The commission heard that it was customary for the members of the inn to receive an invite to breakfast whenever a serjeant or senior barrister was called from Gray's.
[14] The Prudential Insurance Company acquired the premises after its dissolution and maintained its structure, it is the last complete Inn of Chancery building to survive.
This closed in 1959 and only the Hall survives; it was used for various commercial activities until 1991 when it became the lecture theatre and administrative offices of Gresham College.
The original gatehouse of Clifford's Inn survives off Fleet Street and the old curtilage is still a modern residential building of that name; when the 'ancients' attempted to dissolve it and share the capital proceeds of the estate privately the High Court ruled that as the original intention of the institution was legal education then the capital be held as an endowment for pupilage bursaries at Inner Temple.
[5][16] For a long time the report of the Royal Commission contained the only public record of the private accounts of the inns of court; they remained secret until at least 1966.
[19] The commission marked the start of a series of reforms in the field of legal education and led, around fifty years later, to the establishment of modern law schools at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.